Schwyz

Schwyz
Coat of arms
Schwyz
Location of Schwyz
Coordinates: 47°1′N 8°39′E / 47.017°N 8.650°E / 47.017; 8.650Coordinates: 47°1′N 8°39′E / 47.017°N 8.650°E / 47.017; 8.650
Country	Switzerland
Canton	Schwyz
District	Schwyz
Government
• Mayor	Hugo Steiner SPS/PSS
Area
• Total	53.25 km2 (20.56 sq mi)
Elevation	516 m (1,693 ft)
Population (Dec 2015)
• Total	14,856
• Density	280/km2 (720/sq mi)
Postal code	6430
SFOS number	1372
Localities	Schwyz, Ibach, Seewen, Rickenbach
Surrounded by	Alpthal, Illgau, Ingenbohl, Lauerz, Morschach, Muotathal, Oberiberg, Rothenthurm, Sattel, Steinen
Website	www.schwyz.ch SFSO statistics

The town of Schwyz (German pronunciation: [ʃviːt͡s]; French: Schwytz; Italian: Svitto) is the capital of the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland.

The Federal Charter of 1291 or Bundesbrief, the charter that eventually led to the foundation of Switzerland, can be seen at the Bundesbriefmuseum.

The official language of Schwyz is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect.

The earliest certain record of the name dates to 972 as villa Suittes. There are a number of uncertain records dated between 924 and 960, in the form Swites (Suuites) and Switz. The name is recorded as Schwitz in the 13th century, and in the 17th to 18th century often as Schweitz. The name's etymology is uncertain. It was long presented as derived from the name of an eponymous founder in Swiss legend, one Suito or Switer, an explanation found in Swiss school textbooks until the first half of the 20th century. There is currently no consensus on the name's derivation. A Germanic etymology was suggested by Gatschet (1867), deriving the name from an Old High German verb suedan "to burn" (referring to slash-and-burn clearing of woodland for habitation). Brandstetter (1871) is critical of Gatschet's suggestion and prefers derivation from an Alemannic personal name in Svid- as it were presenting a scholarly defense of the Suito of the founding legend. The etymology proposed for the Schweizerisches Idiotikon by Hubschmied (1929) derives the name from a Gallo-Roman *(alpes) suētas, from the Gaulish or Latin word for "", via a Romance *suēdes "(mountain, pasture) of pigs" yielding an Alemannic Swītes. Hubschmied himself distanced himself from this opinion in 1961, preferring an unspecified pre-Roman (or "Etruscan") source. Sonderegger (1966) revisits Gatschet's suedan "slash-and-burn" proposal, but now claims derivation from a cognate Celtic root, *sveit-, Proto-Celtic *sveitos with a meaning of "clearing" or similar, giving Gaulish *Svētos (the long vowel as in Rēnos "Rhine"), Gallo-Romance *Svēdus, -is, and finally Swītesin Old High German by the 8th century.